Snuff box, Giuseppe Gricci, ca. 1750

Shells and shapes inspired by shells were popular in the middle of the eighteenth century as they were seen as a perfect expression of the prevailing rococo fashion of the day.

Indeed the word 'rococo' derives from the French term 'rocailles' used to describe the ornament of shell-incrusted rocks found in fashionable grottoes and other architectural structures. At this time, the taking of snuff (finely-ground and blended tobacco) was considered a very fashionable past-time and the snuff-box became a necessary accessory for any person of taste and refinement. Tobacco and snuff were expensive and seen as exotic and desirable. Shell-shaped snuff boxes are found in precious metals, enamel and porcelain as the natural form is an ideal shape for a small box with a hinged cover.

At the Capodimonte porcelain factory in Naples they were made in the factory's first year of production (1743) and are described in the records as having 'fruttiglie di mare' (fruits of the sea) on their covers. Snuff boxes were often given as gifts between those romanticaly involved, or would-be romantically-involved. This idea is reinforced here by the finely painted interior of the box, where a Turk gestures invitingly to a young woman, here depicted as a classical goddess, perhaps Minerva, to partake of some snuff.

Snuff box and lid, moulded on the exterior with overlapping shells, mainly bivalves, and picked out in tones of pink, yellow, red, brown and grey. The interior of the base with plain burnished gilding; the interior of the lid with a candlelight-scene. The silver-gilt mount with chased scrollwork thumb-piece.